A modified residual-based test for serial correlation in linear panel data models

This paper suggests a modified serial correlation test for linear panel data models, which is based on the parameter estimates for an artificial autoregression modeled by differencing and centering residual vectors. Specifically, the differencing operator over the time index and the centering operator over the individual index are, respectively, used to eliminate the potential individual effects and time effects so that the resultant serial correlation test is robust to the two potential effects. Clearly, the test is also robust to the potential correlation between the covariates and the random effects. The test is asymptotically chi-squared distributed under the null hypothesis. Power study shows that the test can detect local alternatives distinct at the parametric rate from the null hypothesis. The finite sample properties of the test are investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulation experiments, and a real data example is analyzed for illustration.     

Analysis of ϕ-divergence for loglinear models with constraints under product-multinomial sampling

The loglinear model under product-multinomial sampling with constraints is considered. The asymptotic expansion and normality of the restricted minimum φ-divergence estimator (RMφDE) which is a generalization of the maximum likelihood estimator is presented. Then various statistics based on φ-divergence and RMφDE are used to test various hypothesis test problems under the model considered. These statistics contain the classical loglikelihood ratio test statistics and Pearson chi-squared test statistics. In the last section, a simulation study is implemented.     

Statistical Inference for Partially Linear Regression Models with Measurement Errors

In this paper,the authors investigate three aspects of statistical inference for the partially linear regression models where some covariates are measured with errors.Firstly, a bandwidth selection procedure is proposed,which is a combination of the differencebased technique and GCV method.Secondly,a goodness-of-fit test procedure is proposed, which is an extension of the generalized likelihood technique.Thirdly,a variable selection procedure for the parametric part is provided based on the nonconcave penalization and corrected profile least squares.Same as＂Variable selection via nonconcave penalized likelihood and its oracle properties＂（J.Amer.Statist.Assoc.,96,2001,1348-1360）,it is shown that the resulting estimator has an oracle property with a proper choice of regularization parameters and penalty function.Simulation studies are conducted to illustrate the finite sample performances of the proposed procedures.     

Testing for the maximum cell probabilities in multinomial distributions

This paper investigates one-sided hypotheses testing for p, the largest cell probability of multinomial distribution. A small sample test of Ethier (1982) is extended to the general cases. Based on an estimator of p, a kind of large sample tests is proposed. The asymptotic power of the above tests under local alternatives is derived. An example is presented at the end of this paper.     

The computation of Buehler confidence limits

In medicine and industry, small sample size often arises owing to the high test cost. Then exact confidence inference is important. Buehler confidence limit is a kind of exact confidence limit for the function of parameters in a model. It can be always defined if the order in sample space is given. But the computing problem is often difficult, especially for the cases with high dimension parameter or with incomplete data. This paper presents an algorithm to compute the Buehler confidence limits by EM algorithm. This is the first-time usage of EM algorithm on Buehler confidence limits, but the algorithm is often used for maximum likelihood estimate in literatures. Three computation examples are given to illustrate the method.     

Generalized empirical likelihood inference in semiparametric regression model for longitudinal data

In this paper, we consider the semiparametric regression model for longitudinal data. Due to the correlation within groups, a generalized empirical log-likelihood ratio statistic for the unknown parameters in the model is suggested by introducing the working covariance matrix. It is proved that the proposed statistic is asymptotically standard chi-squared under some suitable conditions, and hence it can be used to construct the confidence regions of the parameters. A simulation study is conducted to compare the proposed method with the generalized least squares method in terms of coverage accuracy and average lengths of the confidence intervals.     

A Switching Algorithm Based on Modified Quasi-Newton Equation

In this paper, a switching method for unconstrained minimization is proposed. The method is based on the modified BFGS method and the modified SR1 method. The eigenvalues and condition numbers of both the modified updates are evaluated and used in the switching rule. When the condition number of the modified SR1 update is superior to the modified BFGS update, the step in the proposed quasi-Newton method is the modified SR1 step. Otherwise the step is the modified BFGS step. The efficiency of the proposed method is tested by numerical experiments on small, medium and large scale optimization. The numerical results are reported and analyzed to show the superiority of the proposed method.     

A NONMONOTONE SECOND-ORDER STEPLENGTH METHOD FOR UNCONSTRAINED MINIMIZATION

In this paper, a nonmonotone method based on McCormick＇s second-order Armijo＇s step-size rule [7] for unconstrained optimization problems is proposed. Every limit point of the sequence generated by using this procedure is proved to be a stationary point with the second-order optimality conditions. Numerical tests on a set of standard test problems are presented and show that the new algorithm is efficient and robust.     

Testing heteroscedasticity in nonparametric regression models based on residual analysis

The importance of detecting heteroscedasticity in regression analysis is widely recognized because efficient inference for the regression function requires that heteroscedasticity should be taken into account. In this paper, a simple test for heteroscedasticity is proposed in nonparametric regression based on residual analysis. Furthermore, some simulations with a comparison with Dette and Munk＇s method are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed test. The results demonstrate that the method in this paper performs quite satisfactorily and is much more powerful than Dette and Munk＇s method in some cases.     

SICA for Cox’s proportional hazards model with a diverging number of parameters

The smooth integration of counting and absolute deviation （SICA） penalized variable selection procedure for high-dimensional linear regression models is proposed by Lv and Fan （2009）. In this article, we extend their idea to Cox＇s proportional hazards （PH） model by using a penalized log partial likelihood with the SICA penalty. The number of the regression coefficients is allowed to grow with the sample size. Based on an approximation to the inverse of the Hessian matrix, the proposed method can be easily carried out with the smoothing quasi-Newton （SQN） algorithm. Under appropriate sparsity conditions, we show that the resulting estimator of the regression coefficients possesses the oracle property. We perform an extensive simulation study to compare our approach with other methods and illustrate it on a well known PBC data for predicting survival from risk factors.     

Compact Matrix Expressions for Generalized Wald Tests of Equality of Moment Vectors

Asymptotic chi-squared test statistics for testing the equality of moment vectors are developed. The test statistics proposed are generalized Wald test statistics that specialize for different settings by inserting an appropriate asymptotic variance matrix of sample moments. Scaled test statistics are also considered for dealing with nonstandard conditions. The specialization will be carried out for testing the equality of multinomial populations, and the equality of variance and correlation matrices for both normal and nonnormal data. When testing the equality of correlation matrices, a scaled version of the normal theory chi-squared statistic is proven to be an asymptotically exact chi-squared statistic in the case of elliptical data.     

A bartlett-type adjustment for the likelihood ratio statistic with an ordered alternative

For testing the equality of normal variances with an increasing alternative, under the null hypothesis the likelihood ratio test statistic is asymptotically distributed as a mixture of chi-squared distributions. In this paper a Bartlett-type adjustment is proposed to improve the approximation of the null distribution of the likelihood ratio test statistic with an ordered alternative.     

A Partial Empirical Likelihood Based Score Test Under a Semiparametric Finite Mixture Model

We propose a score statistic to test the null hypothesis that the two-component density functions are equal under a semiparametric finite mixture model. The proposed score test is based on a partial empirical likelihood function under an I-sample semiparametric model. The proposed score statistic has an asymptotic chi-squared distribution under the null hypothesis and an asymptotic noncentral chi-squared distribution under local alternatives to the null hypothesis. Moreover, we show that the proposed score test is asymptotically equivalent to a partial empirical likelihood ratio test and a Wald test. We present some results on a simulation study.     

Semiparametric analysis in double-sampling designs via empirical likelihood

Double-sampling designs are commonly used in real applications when it is infeasible to collect exact measurements on all variables of interest. Two samples, a primary sample on proxy measures and a validation subsample on exact measures, are available in these designs. We assume that the validation sample is drawn from the primary sample by the Bernoulli sampling with equal selection probability. An empirical likelihood based approach is proposed to estimate the parameters of interest. By allowing the number of constraints to grow as the sample size goes to infinity, the resulting maximum empirical likelihood estimator is asymptotically normal and its limiting variance-covariance matrix reaches the semiparametric efficiency bound. Moreover, the Wilks-type result of convergence to chi-squared distribution for the empirical likelihood ratio based test is established. Some simulation studies are carried out to assess the finite sample performances of the new approach.     

Empirical likelihood method for multivariate Cox regression

A unified empirical likelihood approach for three Cox-type marginal models dealing with multiple event times, recurrent event times and clustered event times is proposed. The resulting log-empirical likelihood ratio test statistics are shown to possess chi-squared limiting distributions. When making inferences, there is no need to solve estimating equations nor to estimate limiting covariance matrices. The optimal linear combination property for over-identified empirical likelihood is preserved by the proposed method and the property can be used to improve estimation efficiency. In addition, an adjusted empirical likelihood approach is applied to reduce the error rates of the proposed empirical likelihood ratio tests. The adjusted empirical likelihood tests could outperform the existing Wald tests for small to moderate sample sizes. The proposed approach is illustrated by extensive simulation studies and two real examples.     

Empirical Likelihood for Varying Coefficient EV Models under Longitudinal Data

In this paper, a varying coefficient errors-in-variables model under longitudinal data is investigated. An empirical likelihood based bias-correction approach is proposed. It is proved that the proposed statistics are asymptotically chi-squared under some mild conditions, and hence can be used to construct the confidence regions of the parameters of interest. Finite sample performance of the proposed method is illustrated in a simulation study. The proposed methods are applied to an AIDS clinical trial dataset.     

Modified weighted squared error estimation procedures with special emphasis on the stable laws

Two families of parameter estimation procedures for the stablelaws based on a variant of the characteristic function are provided. The methodology which produces viable computational procedures for the stable laws is generally applicable to other families of distributions across avariety of settings. Both families of procedures may be described as a modified weighted chi-squared minimization procedure, and both explicitlytake account of constraints on the parameter space. Influence functions for and efficiencies of the estimators a r e given. If _l, x₂, ..., x_n is a random sample from an unknown distribution F, a method for determining the stable law to which F is attracted is developed. Procedures for regression and autoregression with stable error structurear e provided. A number of examples are given.     

On some testing problems for sparse contingency tables

A class of test statistics are proposed for sparse tables with ordered categories. It is shown that for different testing situations these test statistics asymptotically more powerful tests than Pearson's chi-square.     

On Properties of the (Φ, a)-Power Divergence Family with Applications in Goodness of Fit Tests

In this paper we unify the different measures of divergence by introducing a general class of measures of divergence, the (Φ, a) −power divergence family and investigate its main properties including the limiting property, the order preserving property, and the quadratic convergence. For the practical implications of the proposed class of measures, we examine its use in goodness of fit tests for multinomial populations. In particular, a test statistic for goodness of fit tests based on the proposed family of measures is investigated for small sample sizes and various multinomial distributions that include symmetric, skewed and equiprobable models. The proposed statistic appears to work well in all cases considered as opposed to other traditional tests including the traditional chi-squared Pearson’s test, which may work well in some but not all situations.